10-Mar-09

Now, I know that you, my loyal readers, sometimes read a post such as this one where I mention a Meijer Box tops for Education deal and wonder to yourselves, “Now I wonder what ever happened to all those box tops coupons that Dan got?”

In fact, I can visualize you crying yourselves to sleep in pain from not knowing.

But fear not! I have been waiting to give you an update until my final box tops sold, which they just did yesterday. After a disastrous first auction, where 210 box tops only sold for $17.50, I had more success with buy it nows. The final box tops sold yesterday, and the 1260 box tops sold for a gross price of $166.44, an average of 13.21 cents per box top. After ebay and paypal fees, the net profit was $138.08, or 10.96 cents per box top.

In an odd twist of coincidence, the total cost of all the food was $87.08 (the coincidence that they were both some dollars and 8 cents).

18-Feb-09

So, back in November of last year, I wrote a post about buying up Box Tops for Education (BTFE) from eBay and then reselling them. Back then I bought a coupon for 1000 BTFE for $81 and was attempting to sell it for $119.99.

I tried 2 auctions back in November and did not sell it even after I dropped it to $114.99. I then decided to hold on to it for a few months until it is BTFE turning in time (the schools turn them in twice a year, Oct and Feb I believe). I listed it recently at $114.99 and it did not sell again so I relisted it at $109.99, and it finally sold.

So, subtracting $3.49 paypal fees, $1.40 ebay insertion fees (35 cents * 4 listings), $9.60 final value fee and $3.29 in postage (I’m sending it certified to make sure it gets there), I have a net profit of $11.22. Not bad, but much less than I was hoping for and arguably not really worth it. Of course you are talking to someone who looks under Coinstar machines for pennies….

I think 2 things contributed to the delays in getting somebody to buy these.

It was a coupon, rather than actual clipped box tops. I think people are a bit more hesitant due to potential fraud. Especially because of

The fact that it was for $100 rather than say $10 or $20. People a) don’t want to spend that much and b) are probably more worried about the 1 coupon being fraudulent. Higher risk than 1000 individually clipped box tops being fraudulent.

Still, $11 is $11. I will continue to keep you posted if I find any other deals.

17-Jan-09

Okay so Meijer had a promotion this week where if you bought 10 participating products, you got a custom coupon for 70 box tops for education. Each BTFE has a face value of 10 cents, and you can turn them into your kid’s school, or, in my case, sell them on eBay.

This is actually somewhat stingier than similar deals that they have had in the past (the best was one where you got 100 BTFE for buying 12 products, and it was on the same week as super double coupons!)

As is usually the case with deals like this, with coupons it’s fairly straight forward to buy the 10 products for less than the $7 face value of the coupon, making it a moneymaker.

I paid a total of $87.08 and if you add that all up, you’ll see that is 160 products, or 16 coupons worth. So they have a face value of $112, but I think I can eBay them for a net profit (after ebay and paypal fees) of $8 each at least, which would make them $128. So a net profit overall of about $40 or more (plus all that food).

As an added bonus, that $87 came out of the “Dan” envelope because I’m treating it as an investment in selling the box tops, so the total weekly grocery bill was only $53.